Nurses strike looms at New York Hospital Queens in Flushing

A Queens hospital could soon be facing a strike by more than 700 of its registered nurses after a new round of contract talks hit an impasse, the Daily News has learned.

New York Hospital Queens in Flushing and 722 of its registered nurses returned to the bargaining table April 22, following a cooling-off period that elected officials brokered in February to avert a planned three-day strike.

But the latest round of talks appear to have broken off after a committee of nurses - whose contract expired Oct. 31 - walked out of a bargaining meeting Friday.

"The committee was just disgusted," said Clare Thompson, who is leading the negotiations for the nurses' union, 1199 SEIU.

"They just got tired of management saying, 'No. We don't have anything,' even though it's just crumbs left on the table right now."

The impasse comes amid a wave of school closings in Queens, which has emerged as the epicenter of the nation's swine flu outbreak.

Prior to the planned three-day strike in February, the hospital had signed a contract to provide fill-in nurses.

Hospital spokesman Scott Sieber would not say whether it had done so this time around, saying only, "We consider this to be an active negotiation and we are looking forward to coming to a resolution."

However, Thompson said the union has not scheduled another meeting with hospital management.

The union has yet to ask members to vote on whether to strike, she said, though it began polling nurses Tuesday to see what they say the next move should be.

She refused to say whether she thought a strike was imminent.

In the initial round of talks, the union had asked hospital management to contribute toward pension and benefits funds - arrangements already provided to about 700 service workers at the hospital, Thompson said.

The union has since dropped that demand, but the sticking point appears to be the length of the contract.

The hospital wants five years, but the union wants only three, Thompson said.

Following the closure of two Queens hospitals in March due to bankruptcy, New York Hospital Queens saw patient volume jump by some 150 visits per week, CEO Stephen Mills had previously said.

When the swine flu outbreak first hit last month, Mills said hospital volume increased by an additional 100 to 120 patients per day.

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